Vibe Welcomes The Ariston

The band joined Chris Lane live in the studio for a special On Air Acoustic performance.

Joining me in the studio before they go live for the On Air Acoustic segment of Chris Lane’s Raw Vibes show, Luca and Nathan from upcoming indie alt rock band The Ariston tell me about their new single, upcoming shows, and much more.

Consisting of Luca Slade, Nathan Melhuish, Will Parsonson, and Finn Bunce, the four-piece have been coined by Iron Maiden ex-member Tony Moore as “second to none!”. This coincides impressively with the band’s name, which translates to‘the best’ in Greek. Naturally I have to ask if this is the sole meaning behind the unique name; lots of band names can be considered cliche and obvious so this is intriguing to me. Luca reports that the band were initially called 130, named after the room in which they practiced in. However, after a while they changed it to ‘The Ariston’ because “Will’s first memory of music was listening to his Dad’s record player and on the record player it said ‘Ariston Acoustics’ on it.” Regarding new music his dad would say, “that’s one for The Ariston, referring to the record player.” Cleverly, the band is now “The Ariston providing the music.”

I am told that Luca and Will met initially at drama school, and they later met Finn in Guildford; Nathan is the newest addition. Juggling a full-time aircraft engineering job and being in a band must be difficult but, impressively, Nathan balances both. He tells me he found the band on a website online called ‘Band Mix’ in which musicians look for bands and vice versa. He saw the guys playing Wokingham festival the week after and then had a practice session with the band. Luca jokes, “we kept leading him on.” “They wouldn’t tell me I was part of the band”, Nathan replies to which I find amusing. “You were playing hard to get with him”, I laugh. 

The songwriting process differs artist to artist so I feel inclined to ask whether its a collaborative routine or an individual process. What happens? Nathan answers, “every rehearsal we have our own stuff that we come up with in our own time and we bring it all together Our latest one called ‘getting it’, Luca came up with a chord progression; it sounded pretty cool. Then Finn overlayed some drums to it. I think Will and I came up with a baseline and a leadline and it was just like that.”

The band’s new single out 20th February, ‘Simona’, came about in 2021/22. Luca says he came up with a riff initially which the band liked but they didn’t know what to call it; “we didn’t have any lyrics for it, we were just going to call it Luca’s song”. Will suggested Simone’s song, the name of Luca’s mum. Luca laughs, “I was like, what are you getting at? But we sort of went with that and it turned into Simona”. 

After reading that The Ariston were heavily inspired by The Killers and Arctic Monkeys, I ask who else inspired the band’s sound. Both Luca and Nathan very quickly reply, “Catfish and The Bottlemen”; this is no surprise to me after listening to the band’s discography. Nathan then tells the story of how he saw Catfish and the Bottlemen in Warrington in 2021 and the other members were there too, a few feet away from each other not knowing that they would later be part of the same band. Luca confirms that they both have videos “of exactly the same view”. Funnily enough Nathan says he had turned to his friend when he was there and said, “it’s not too late to start a band”; “clearly that didn’t go anywhere”, he adds. Everything happens for a reason.

On 20th February the band are supporting The Lottery Winners at O2 Academy Bristol, the same day ‘Simona’ comes out. Luca and Nathan exclusively preview that their setlist will contain ‘Simona’, of course, whilst other fan favourites like ‘The Festival’, and ‘Yellow Lines’. Knowing that a lot of artists, especially new and upcoming artists, tend to perform covers of songs, I ask if the band are considering playing any. “We love a good cover” Luca replies which I take as a yes. Nathan adds that his personal favourite cover to play is Pacifier by Catfish and the Bottlemen, whilst Luca’s is Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand; “we’ve got a little twist that we do on that which is quite fun”, he says. 

Being in a band comes with so many exciting aspects, both challenging and rewarding. Nevertheless, Nathan regards writing music together as his favourite part. Admitting that he has always played since he was seven years old but has tried writing in the past but has found it “impossible”; “I didn’t think I could write music at all, in fact it’s still kind of up in the air if i can or not” he adds. Luca laughs, “he’s fishing.” 

Asserting that “being in a room and bouncing ideas off each other, you can do so much more than just sitting by yourself”, Nathan largely conveys a great sense of unity in the band. Reminiscent of biopics like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ or the recently released ‘A Complete Unknown’ where you see the songwriting process come to life on screen, it feels as if The Ariston work in similar ways, bringing everything together as a team. Whilst Nathan admits that he can’t write lyrics, he adds to the music in his own unique way. Luca notes that Nathan has brought “a new flavour” to the upcoming music, sonically. 

As well as Nathan’s new input, the band have been working recently with Jamie Brown, who has worked with artists like The 1975, Two Door Cinema Club, and Sabrina Carpenter. The band have done their recording for their new record at JBJ studios in London. In regards to the exciting differences of the new music, Luca reveals, “it sounds like our old stuff but there’s definitely a new element which I think has come partly from working with Jamie. Jamie has taken our sound to another level; he’s made everything bigger. Our live sound is what people know us for and we wanted to replicate that but in a studio setting.” Nathan agrees, “he smashed it with Simona.”

I ask if the new track ‘Simona’ is the favourite song to date, Nathan replies yes but Luca appears hesitant; “yes… but I’ve got a soft spot for Yellowlines, I want to rework it”, Luca says. He adds that due to recording that on a laptop in one of their rooms, “a reimagined version would be fun to do; we love playing it live, it’s the one people sing along to most.”

Listen to ‘Simona’ now on streaming platforms, and check out the band’s social media for more content.